By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
In reality, the shootout that followed Saturday’s night’s scoreless overtime between Rochester Institute of Technology and St. Lawrence University had very little meaning.
It meant nothing in terms of the official team records and meant nothing in the NCAA PairWise Rankings, the numbers-crunching system which determines at-large tournament bids.
But if nothing else, it gave Tigers goalie Tommy Scarfone a chance to showcase his talents on the skills-competition stage. Which is just what he did.
The junior goaltender from Montreal stopped all three St. Lawrence shooters – including his former prep school teammate Greg Lapointe – and RIT freshman Tyler Fukakusa dazzled on the final shot to score against goalie Ben Kraws as the Tigers won the shootout 1-0 but officially skated to a 1-1 tie with the Saints.
Elijah Gonsalves scored the Tigers goal early in the second period and Tyler Cristall scored for the Saints in the first minute of the third period.
The battle of goaltenders – Scarfone made a career-high 46 saves and Kraws stopped 42 saves – capped the final nonconference weekend of the season for RIT. For the first time in the Division I era for the Tigers, they finished with a winning record against non-Atlantic Hockey opponents (4-3-1).
“That bodes well for us because we play a lot of good teams,” said Tigers coach Wayne Wilson, whose club takes a 13-6-1 record into the second half of AHA play starting Thursday at Niagara.
What also bodes well for RIT: having Scarfone in goal. He’s the latest in a line of stalwart goaltenders, which started with Jared DeMichiel with the magical Frozen Four run in 2009-10, was accentuated by Shane Madolora and also included a lot of winning by Mike Rotolo.
Through 17 games, Scarfone has a 12-5-1 record, 2.20 goals-against average and .927 save percentage. He also has two shutouts, the second of which came in Friday’s 4-0 home victory over Clarkson.
Technically he’s very sound. Wilson also likes his competitiveness.
“And there’s a calmness,” Wilson said. “At least I’m calm when he’s in the net.”
Why wouldn’t he be. Pucks rarely go in when they shouldn’t. There’s a long, long list of goalies throughout history who could make incredible saves but then gave up bad goals an the most inopportune times. Scarfone doesn’t give up bad goals.
When he stopped St. Lawrence winger Logan Ritchie at 10:04 of the second period, his career save total clicked to 2,000. Just two other RIT goalies reached that mark. He also needs only one victory to tie the school Division I record for career victories (held by Logan Drackett at 43).
“He’s as good as we’ve ever had here,” Wilson said. “He reminds me of Shane in that he’s a goalie that catches the puck; they’re a dying breed. He’s not just trying to get a piece of the shot, he’s trying to catch it.”
And most importantly, “he’s there when we need him,” Wilson said.
Like on Saturday night, when St. Lawrence (5-11-2) really cranked up the pressure over the second half of the game. Of the Saints’ 47 shots on goal, 31 came in the final 30 minutes, including 21 in the third period.
Which was just fine with Scarfone.
“I love the type of games where I’m getting a lot of shots,” Scarfone said. “It makes you stay in the game.”
He’s obviously aware of his stat line. It has no meaning during the game, but he knows very well that it’s the public record of his play.
“I take a lot of pride in my numbers and how I do,” Scarfone said, “because people that aren’t watching the games, that’s what they’re going to go by.”
The only shot that eluded Scarfone came 54 seconds into the third period. A turnover gave Felikss Gavars an uncontested one-timer from the slot. Scarfone was able to make the save but Cristall pounced on the rebound, one Scarfone had no chance to control, made a quick deke and then flipped it home.
Still, like every goalie, Scarfone in hindsight thought that maybe he could have played the rebound differently.
“I should have poke-checked him,” he said, “but credit to him, it was a really nice move.”
Scarfone was terrific for the rest of the third period, in overtime and then in the shootout, and the Tigers left the ice at least feeling like winners after Fukakusa’s slick three-deke move to end the shootout on the third and final round.
Now comes seven straight weeks of Atlantic Hockey play to end the regular season. The first-place Tigers lead American International College and Sacred Heart by two points.
“When we play out-of-league teams, we want to prove ourselves to the whole NCAA,” Scarfone said. “But we’re going to keep the same mindset in league play the rest of the way.”
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